The present disclosure relates to a liquid crystal projector apparatus using a liquid crystal display element.
Typically, a liquid crystal projector apparatus that displays a color image reflects light, which is emitted from a light source, onto three liquid crystal display elements (hereinafter simply referred to as “display elements”) individually provided for red (R), green (G), and blue (B) as primary color components, or transmits the light therethrough, thereby projecting an image onto a screen by using a lens.
While the liquid crystal projector apparatus is in use, the temperature of each display element rises due to heat generated by a drive circuit or heat generated by light emitted from a light source; however, since characteristics of the reflection or transmission of the light vary depending on the temperature, it is necessary to perform temperature control for the display elements in order to keep such a projection image at a high quality. In the temperature control for the display elements, it is important to maintain a temperature balance between the respective display elements simultaneously by controlling the temperature of the respective display elements within a predetermined temperature range. Japanese Patent No. 5308394 discloses a liquid crystal projector apparatus, which controls the temperature of the respective display elements in such a manner that a temperature sensor and a cooling fan are installed for the respective display elements in order to control the temperature of the display elements more accurately.
A first aspect of the embodiments provides a liquid crystal projector apparatus including: a plurality of display elements configured to individually modulate light of color components different from one another; a plurality of temperature detection units configured to individually detect temperatures of the plurality of display elements; a plurality of cooling units configured to individually cool the plurality of display elements; and a controller configured to control the individual temperatures of the plurality of display elements by individually cooling the plurality of display elements by the plurality of cooling units in response to detection results of the plurality of temperature detection units, wherein when the temperature of the display element in which a temperature rise rate is the slowest among the plurality of display elements does not reach a predetermined temperature, the controller controls so that the temperatures of other display elements stay within a predetermined range that takes as a reference the temperature of the display element in which the temperature rise rate is slowest.
A second aspect of the embodiments provides a liquid crystal projector apparatus including: a plurality of display elements configured to individually modulate light of color components different from one another; a plurality of temperature detection units configured to individually detect temperatures of the plurality of display elements; a plurality of cooling units configured to individually cool the plurality of display elements; and a controller configured to control the individual temperatures of the plurality of display elements by individually cooling the plurality of display elements by the plurality of cooling units in response to detection results of the plurality of temperature detection units, wherein the controller controls so that the plurality of display elements individually stay within a predetermined temperature range, and when the temperature of at least one display element among the plurality of display elements becomes a temperature lower than a lower limit of the predetermined temperature range, controls so that the temperatures of other display elements stay within a predetermined range that takes as a reference the temperature of the display element in which the temperature is lowest.
A third aspect of the embodiments provides a liquid crystal projector apparatus including: a plurality of display elements configured to individually modulate light of color components different from one another; a plurality of temperature detection units configured to individually detect temperatures of the plurality of display elements; a plurality of cooling units configured to individually cool the plurality of display elements; and a controller configured to control the individual temperatures of the plurality of display elements by individually cooling the plurality of display elements by the plurality of cooling units in response to detection results of the plurality of temperature detection units, wherein the controller controls so that the plurality of display elements individually stay within a predetermined temperature range, and when the temperature of at least one display element among the plurality of display elements becomes a temperature higher than an upper limit of the predetermined temperature range, controls so that the temperatures of other display elements stay within a predetermined range that takes as a reference the temperature of the display element in which the temperature is highest.